Fire In The Sky

The truth is out there. Pray it doesn't find you.

Looks like we have to go... INSIDE

The new mission started with the group regrouping. New orders from Sergeant Christopher Nunez were to either capture the portal for Delta Green to study further, or to destroy it to deny a private corporation access to it. Complicating this was Malcolm Reading was still MIA, having stepped into the portal at the tail end of the last mission.

With the death of Doc, Christopher Nunez assigned an infiltration specialist, Alfred Canivorous, to join the team. The group considered their options, and chose to send Alfred Canivorous in posing as a scientist to try to infiltrate the warehouse that they believed had a passageway to the underground portal. This was going to be done both to monitor the portal and gather information on the security and research done inside. However, Mr. Canivorous was unable to persuade the guard at the front gate. As he left, he saw some pretty large machinery looking to be loaded onto 18 wheeler trucks, which the group believed might have involved moving the portal, or installing more security systems. So the group “reluctantly” decided to go to plan B, which was a full frontal assault of the facility under cover of night, ideally with their security systems disabled first by an infiltration specialist and a computer expert. They began making preparations for the assault.

The assault happened under cover of night, with Alfred Canivorous disabling several 18-wheeler trucks before the group and their strike team arrived. They engaged several guards and attempted to seize control of the facility, which was going very well at first. They claimed the warehouse and found a secret passage, leading towards a train going underground, which they got into and rode. After a short trip. they arrived at a substation underground, where they were greeted by the head researcher of the facility. He tried to negotiate with the group, which ended up going poorly. Another fire fight broke out, and the group won the day, capturing the lead researcher in the process. While exploring the facility they discovered Malcolm Reading in a prison cell, stating he’d been to the other side of the portal and was captured. Although his story is not yet fully told, he seemed trustworthy enough, so the group let him out.

Interrogating the lead researcher revealed that the facility was managed by an AI named A.D.A.M, whose primary purpose was to secure it and contain the portal and anything that came through it. The lead researcher led the group to A.D.A.M’s core, a massive super computer in a small enclosed room. However, once they came inside, the only way out, a reinforced door, shut on everyone, locking them in. A deadly gas began pouring into the room through cooling vents. The group frantically tried to figure out escape plans, but Lance Boone was able to negotiate with the AI, who allowed them a retreat as long as they agreed not to return to the facility. The group went along with this plan, but upon returning to the facility later, found it to be missing entirely. They escaped death and saved an ally, but were unable to secure the portal or confirm it’s destruction.

In Which Good Men are Lost.

Picking up where the game last left off, the group was preparing to infiltrate the Yellow Basin Mining Concern’s Mine, using the excuse of the Coal Sludge that they implanted into the fake “body” of the dead agent last time as their excuse for investigating the mine. But first, Ned Icecave was going to hook a phone tap up to their phone lines in secret, with Doc Hallows and Sam Prelutsky keeping watch. This went out without a hitch. While monitoring their phone lines, everything seemed aboveboard until one specific call happened. It was outbound to a cell phone registered to a man named Brant Stevenson. Someone left Mr. Stevenson a voicemail saying that “there were FBI agents snooping around and that he should keep his eyes open to ensure the FBI doesn’t get into any sensitive areas.” This also gave the group both phone numbers for the person calling Brant Stevenson, and the number for Brant Stevenson himself. Further forensic data mining by Ned Icecave identified the GPS coordinates frequented by Brant Stevenson, including what seemed to be a warehouse where he spent most of his time with his phone off.

The group considered many plans, including abducting Brant Stevenson, sneaking into the warehouse by night, and abducting the security guards of the warehouse AND Brant Stevenson. Eventually, it was decided that the most practical way of investigating the situation was to sneak into the Yellow Basin Mining Concern’s Mine disguised as miners. The group found the mine to be surprisingly low-security, and Lance Boone managed to talk through the Foreman watching the punchclock, the only seeming monitor that could have raised an alarm. Once inside, the group made their way to the mineshaft that the map they acquired indicated was a point of interest. They discovered, however, that the shaft was collapsed. By operating mining equipment, they were able to open the shaft back up and snuck inside, stymied only by another foreman. Malcolm Reading managed to dissuade him (with a taser) from raising an alarm. Sneaking into the re-opened mineshaft, the group found after a few miles they went into an old room filled with an active portal of some sort, as well as machinery likely meant to operate and manipulate it. There was also a thick blast door watched by security cameras. The cameras tracked the party’s movement and identified them as an “Unknown Biological Hazard”. An automated security system deployed two machine-gun turrets, which fired on Sam Prelutsky and Doc Hallows. Sam Prelutsky got out unharmed but Doc Hallows got gunned down and died.

The group made the decision to tactically retreat at this point, but Malcolm Reading decided he wasn’t able to get out in time, and jumped into the portal itself. At this time his fate is unknown. The rest of the group retreated down the tunnel, detonating it behind them with some C4 to seal it back up and prevent anything coming through the portal from breaking containment. The trio of Ned Icecave, Lance Boone, and Sam Prelutsky, the only surviving agents on this side of the portal, encountered five police officers who attempted to arrest the group of them at taser-point. The agents dispatched four of them and interrogated the fifth police officer, who verified that the Yellow Basin Mining Concern more or less employed them as private security force. The agents escaped, contacting Nunez, who stated their mission parameters were changing: They had to capture the Yellow Basin Mining Concern’s center of operations studying this portal, and destroy the portal to ensure that it wasn’t going to be a liability to the United States or anyone else going forward. He promised to send backup, and ordered the three of them to hole up for now.

In Which A Missing Agent's Fate is Investigated

The group started out with a mission briefing, where their task would be to investigate the disappearance of a missing agent. This agent, Codename Chen, went under the alias “Eric Malcolm” for this mission. He was charged with investigating electromagnetic disturbances and earthquakes in the area of Crooksville, Kentucky, which were suspected to be related to mining operations conducted to the Yellow Basin Mining Company. The group was supposed to find out the nature of the disturbances he was investigating, the agent’s fate, and if possible extract him. The group gathered all the following intel remotely before heading to Crooksville’s streets.

Evo Corp owns a company called Chenwa Research Concern, which owns Yellow Basin Mining Corp, which is a very recently incorporated company stationed in Crooksville, Kentucky. They also own the Crooksville Development Authority, which may or may not be relevant. We are looking for agent Chen, who was sent to the headquarters of the Yellow Basin Mining Corp. He went dark after traveling to Crooksville to do some preliminary research. He was investigating a disturbance using electromagnetic equipment to try and investigate the disturbance, as well as gathering information around Crooksville’s streets.

The group’s initial cover story was that they would place a cadaver dressed up as an FBI agent (and create a cover ID of him) in the area, and then allow it to be discovered with death being due to mysterious circumstances (Created using a radioactive poison). The cover story would allow the group, posing as FBI agents, to investigate in the area. Sam Prelutsky got the group a base of operations at the local “Crooksville Motel Six” listing himself as “Marcus Donner”. while the rest of the group went to meet to touch base with the local police.

The group worked with local police and “Discovered” the planted body without a hitch. According to the plan, the body was killed by “a poisonous dose of coal slurry.” According to the police, the Crooksville Development Authority owned the land that the body was discovered on. The officers agreed not to report anything to the news until we “got all the facts.” and for the moment seemed willing to cooperate. The next step of the operation was where Lance Boone and Sam Prelutsky were sent to the Crooksville Development Authority, informing them of the body found on their land and securing their permission to investigate the area around where the “body” was found. Ned Icecave also walked through the Crooksville Development Authority Offices and identified the general ideas of their security systems, trying to find any vulnerabilities.

The group pulled the last GPS coordinates of Agent Chen’s cell phone, and identified that the the last coordinates of his cell phone, which were in the Crooksville Motel 6. Ned Icecave hacked their guest registry remotely and found an entry for Eric Malcolm, the alias of the missing agent, who was paid up through the week in Room 6. The group hatched a plan to get the woman at the front desk away from it so that the group would spoof a keycard to get into the former agent’s room. Sam Prelutsky called her away to the group’s room late at night needing a clean towel, while Ned Icecave would spoof the keycard and Lance Boone would run interferance if Sam wasn’t able to hold her at his room long enough. Sam Prelutsky’s attempt at seduction failed horribly, causing the woman to throw the towel at him and walk off in a huff. However, the group did manage to get the keycards.

Ned Icecave and Sam Prelutsky snuck into Agent Chen’s room and got access to his computer and his cell phone. Ned Icecave hacked into the computer and discovered that Agent Chen had triangulated the disturbances to 2 miles down below the mine. He also seemed to take an interest in one shaft specifically, which seemed to branch away from the rest of the mine. Ned Icecave kept the computer and cell phone, then walked to Nelly, the woman at the front desk, to pick her mind about recent events in the town. This didn’t result in any pertinent information. So the group, with little other recourse, went to the bar.

Ned Icecave stuck up a conversation with a local barfly, Gabe Fellows, who told him a story about four miners who, after a bit of an incident in the bar, went missing a year ago. The barfly also mentioned that the local Police were in league with the Yellow Basin Mining Company. He got the names of each of the missing miner’s family members from the barfly. Gabe Jansen, the director of the mine. The group then committed to work to get Gabe Jansen to give them permission to go into the Mine to take samples of the coal sludge.

In Which the baton is passed, and a new Narrator starts his job

(Please note that this is an abridged narration covers two different sessions.)

The game picked up where the last one left off, with the duo of Joel Gregory and Brian Gall rejoining the group with a copy of Azathoth and Other Horrors tucked under Gall’s arm. A news report broadcast that evening reported a murder occuring at the library of Miscatonic University, which shed further suspicion on the good name of Brian Gall, prompting the remaining members of the group to keep him under surveilliance. That evening, this decision bore fruit when one of the members of the group witnessed him getting up, walking out of their hotel, and staring up into the stars. The group chose not to confront him regarding his erratic behavior at that time.

The next day, the group continued thier investigations by conducting a background check into the careers of the deceased wife and husband. Following up on leads, they found that the husband had been the director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Seeing this as a likely lead, the group proceeded to investigate the Orchestra itself, with Brian Gall, Lance Boone, and Joel Gregory going to ask the former Director’s associates and co-workers about his recent behavior and work history. Meanwhile, Malcolm Reading and the Doc were to continue investigating Joel Gregroy’s attacker. Malcolm Reading found no new knowledge from the interrogation, but through a medical investigation they discovered the assailant’s body chemistry had noticable imbalances in certain horemones and that there seemed to be a parasitic entity in the man’s brain.

The group who went to the Boston Symphony Orchestra took note of several unusual instruments while entering the concert hall, and when they inquired about it found that the Orchestra was scheduled to perform an esotaric and obscure musical concert in a few nights. They met with the new Director, a stressed and overworked woman who seemed even more stressed out with the recent death of her prececessor. At the prompting of Lance Boone, Brian Gall attempted to use his psychic powers to examine her mind and investigate whether she was being entirely honest with the party or not. Whatever Brian Gall saw, it had a noticiable effect on him, mentally and physically. Everyone gathered noted he was bleeding from the nose, and seemed very shaken and concerned. He made excuses and quickly took his leave. Joel Gregory and Lance Boone, being rather suspicious, managed to persuade the new Director to come with them. Allegedly, they were concerned about her erratic behavior, but in reality they were going to take her down to the Police Station because they suspected her behavior was not her own. But as Lance Boon and Joal Gregory left, they found that Brian Gall was missing in action, and once a phone call failed to reach him, both immediately assumed he had gone rogue, as his past behavior had cast suspicion over his motives.

Brian Gall woke up trapped in a rundown building, held hostage by several assailants. The spider in his mind made an attempt to seize control of his body, but he resisted it. His captors said he would make an ideal vessel, but he used his psychic powers to incapacitate both of them, stealing a cell phone and escaping. He made the mistake of not subduing both of his captors before he did so, however, and when he called the rest of the group and reported where he was and what had happened, they investigated the place he was captured out and found nothing incriminating beyond a few bloodstains. However, he did divulge all the intel he had: that they were dealing with psychic parasites similar to the one who had infested him. And they were preparing to somehow cause a mass infestation at the concert happening at the coming night. The group did not trust his account of the story without any proof to confirm it, so they sent him back to Sergeant Christopher Nunez to confirm he wasn’t a danger to the mission. His fate at this time is unknown.

The group reunited at the Police Station and promptly put the new Director under lock and key, while the Doc and Malcolm Reading informed their associates of their findings. After taking a blood sample and having the Doc compare her results to Joel Gregory’s assailant, confirming her blood chemistry matched his. Suspecting the Director had a parasite in her brain, they had Malcolm Reading begin an interrogation of her, with the intent of trying to draw the creature out to communicate with it and find out what it’s intent was. He was successful in doing this, but did not anticipate the results. The creature spoke briefly with him, hinting at a Ritual that was coming, and then used psychic powers to incapaciate him. By the time reinforcements got to help him, the creature had burrowed into Malcolm Reading’s mind, prompting the group to send him to surgery under heavily armed observation with the goal of extracting the creature before it became a threat.

A call was made to Thessaly upon reading the book that Brian Gall and Joel Gregory had, combined with the results of the investigation. She remarked that she knew of the creature and that Sunlight was their bane. The group confirmed this by boring a hole in Malcolm Reading’s skull and exposing it to sunlight, killing it and allowing it to be more or less safely extracted from his brain. At this point, the group believed that the Concert at the Boston Symphony Orchestra was going to be the proceedings of a ritual. They made preparations to stop it, including a police raid on the Orchestra to cancel the performance. Another of these preparations involved calling in the assistance of fellow agent Sam Prelutsky, whom had joined Delta Green after the Dam Incident he had inexplicably survived.

The group, flanked by police officers, barged into the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but found that the building was abandoned. After several minutes, they recieved reports of the Orchestra being forced to perform at gunpoint at an outdoor auditorium in a nearby park, which prompted them to race there as fast as possible. Through madness-inducing music and unfathomable psychic assaults the group fought. Sam Prelutsky revealed he had an army surplus machine gun in the trunk of his car. And though many people died, they were ultimately victorious. However, several of the parasitic bugs burst out of their hosts and flew off in scattered directions, and the group was unable to give chase due to the chaos of the situation.

Our next adventure opened with the PCs licking their wounds from the loss of Frederick Goodwin, Jared Silverstein, and Sarge. Although they had saved the Grand Coulee Dam from the Taleisin Circle and their plot to blow it up, unsettling news had surfaced – a tabloid newspaper was reporting giant spider sightings in the woods of northeastern Oregon, and had published a blurry, out-of-focus picture that looked suspiciously like a spider demon.

Thessaly contacted Brian Gall, eagerly inquiring about the sorceress the PCs had encountered at the dam. When she heard the name “Morgan Lafayette,” she began asking Gall a bevy of questions, keenly interested in every detail. She requested that Gall let her know if he or the rest of the group ever crossed paths with Lafayette again, and Gall agreed to do so.

Scarcely a week passed when Nunez called the PCs to order again in the briefing room. He told them he needed their help with a mysterious murder case that had surfaced recently. A husband and wife were found dead in their Boston home, the wife of multiple stab wounds, while the husband seemed to have been bludgeoned to death, his body lying slumped beneath a granite countertop. What set the case apart from any other unsolved murder was the fact that occult diagrams had been drawn all over the walls in black paint, as well as the message: “NO DREAMS CAN’T SLEEP CAN’T WAKE UP CAN’T RUN THEY’RE EVERYWHEREWATCHINGEVENNOW IT’S ALLWRONG I CANHEARTHEM IT’S ALLWRONGNOTLONGNOW IT’S ALLWRONG CAN’T SLEEP CAN’T SLEEP CAN’T SLEEP…”

The PCs headed to the crime scene to begin investigating at once. An examination of the wife’s body turned up multiple deep stab wounds in her back. A butcher’s knife was missing from the kitchen and was found discarded on the floor several feet away, covered in dried blood. The husband’s fingerprints were found in the handle. His body showed deep bludgeoning wounds to the head, skull, and brain. In fact, his skull has been shattered at one point in the front right area and the brain was exposed. The would was full of little granite fragments.

The PCs canvassed the rest of the house and turned up quite a few clues. Red and green fibers were found on he front door latch, although the PCs weren’t sure what fabric they belonged to. The paint had been bought the day before at Home Depot, and the brush had the husband’s fingerprints on it. The door leading to the office had both the husband’s prints and another in identified set of prints. Finally, in the fireplace they found a book, badly burned and unidentifiable. They tried to use photoshop to enhance photos of it to learn some of its contents, but without the expertise of Ned Icecave, they were unable to make any progress. Finally after much debate they turned the book over to Thessaly, who claimed to have some magical means of determining what the book was, but at the cost that they must allow her to accompany them the next time she wanted to, no questions asked. Reluctantly, the PCs agreed, shipping the book over to her for analysis.

Searching for leads, the PCs decided to ask the crowd of assembled neighbors and onlookers if they had seen anything suspicious.

Lance Boone and Joel Gregory questioned the crowd and was able to identify an old lady, a Ms. Stevens, who said she had a lead for the investigation. Unfortunately, before he could question her, an indigent-looking man approached amidst the crowd and accused Gregory of killing his brother, reaching into the waistband of his pants for a gun! Unfortunately for the hobo, the PCs were much quicker on the draw. Gregory barreled into the man, while Boone disarmed him of his pistol, the pair putting him under arrest and taking him back to the nearest police station for questioning.

The interrogation was done, as usual, by Malcolm Reading, but the answers the man gave were perplexing to say the least. Although he spoke clearly and lucidly and was insistent that Gregory had killed his brother in a traffic stop gone bad, there seemed to be no record of his brother ever existing, and the man was unable to produce any identifying details that lead anywhere. Gregory had no recollection of the alleged slaying, and it seemed as if the man had been fabricated out of whole cloth. After a lengthy and circular interrogation, the PCs decided they were getting nowhere, and turned the man over to Boston PD for booking.

Meanwhile their investigation was bearing fruit elsewhere – Thessaly had indeed determined the title of the book – Azathoth and Other Horrors, and told them that the nearest intact copy could be found at the Miskatonic University Library rare books collection. The PCs decided to send Brian Gall and Joel Gregory to go to the University and try to recover the book.

When they arrived at the university they spoke to the curator, Dr. Henry Armitage, who agreed after some negotiation to allow them to photocopy the book in return for a photocopy of Alexander DeLong’s copy of De Vermis Mysteriis. When he went to go get the book from the rare book collection, however, Brian Gall slipped out after him. Gall returned about twenty minutes later with the book in hand, telling Gregory that they had to flee the university immediately. As the pair left, they heard the sound of sirens rising in the distance, and the session adjourned for the night.

Knee Deep In The Dead

When we left out heroes, they had come up with a daring plan to stop the Taleisin Circle cult and save the Grand Coulee Dam from destruction. Unfortunately their plan was thwarted by the absence of Alexander Delong (due to his player not being able to make this session). Since Delong’s spellcasting prowess had been the linchpin of the PC’s last plan, they had to scrap it and make another at the last minute.

With the help of Ned Icecave they hacked into a government database and downloaded architectural plans of the dam, which revealed an interior staircase that was likely to be lightly guarded, which they could use to gain access to the upper level of the dam. The group decided to try to sneak into the staircase and onto the upper level. Once there, they would find and either steal or destroy the detonator. Since the cult had used C-4 in their explosive charges, they could not be easily detonated without the proper detonator. This should hopefully buy time for some inbound military units to come stop the cult, which otherwise hopelessly outnumbered the PCs. Their plan made, the group approached the bridge.

Before they arrived, they were approached by Sam Prelutsky, a USMC vet and concerned citizen, who had seen the cultists planting charges on the dam and recognized immediately what was going on. He said he wanted to help, and the outnumbered PCs were in no position to say no. After a brief interrogation session to make sure he was on the up and up, they decided to take the uninitiated Prelutsky with them on their likely-suicidal mission to save the dam.

Unfortunately, things went belly-up rather quickly. Only a few of the PCs were particularly stealthy, and the others were spotted by armed guards immediately. A gunfight ensued, in which the group had little cover to rely upon. Nonetheless, several of the PCs were accomplished fighters at this point and one by one they began to pick off the guards.

Frederick Goodwin even used the chaos to sneak up to the staircase, finding it guarded by only a trio of armed men. He tried to talk his way around them and was mostly successful – two of the guards bought his story, but one wasn’t so sure and insisted on accompanying him up the staircase, to make sure he didn’t try anything funny. Fortunately, Goodwin had a taser in hand that he decided to use to incapacitate the guard. As he pulled it out, the guard continued up the staircase, not suspecting a thing….

Then, disaster struck. Goodwin fired the taser, but missed. The guard turned, pointed his automatic weapon, and shot Goodwin once in the abdomen, and again fatally in the chest. Meanwhile, outside the rest of the PCs were getting shot up by the guards outside the building with the staircase. Sarge took a hit and as Jared Silverstein rushed forward to administer first aid, he heard the click of a rifle action behind him. It would be the last sound he’d ever hear, as the cultist fired a perfect shot into his heart, striking a fatal wound in an instant. The doctor collapsed immediately, an ocean of blood pooling beneath him.

Seeing that things were going bad fast, the PCs took drastic measures, which would ultimately end up saving their lives. First, Sarge grabbed the now-dead Silverstein’s medical bag, which contained not only his first aid kit but also his combat stimulants. Then, Sarge entered one of the cars parked in parking lot by the cultists and, having taken the keys off a dead cultist, started it up. The rest of the PCs piled in, and Sarge gunned the engine, driving the car up a long ramp and onto the top of the bridge, right into the gun sights of dozens of cultists who were stationed up there!

Sarge administered an extraordinarily large dose of CMP to himself, becoming almost completely insensitive to pain, then put the petal to the metal, speeding the car into a storm of bullets! Lead flew hot through the air, and as the car sped on the firestorm shattered the windshield and began to disintegrate the frame and engine block. Sarge was pretty sure he had taken a bullet or two, but with all the CMP in his system he couldn’t be sure.

As they drove, Icecave pulled out all be stops, casting spells he had long shunned, summoning spider demon after spider demon (as seen in the first mission, Shepard’s Creek). The ravenous creatures, completely uncontrolled by Icecave, fell upon the closest prey – in this case, the hostile cultists, and made a brilliant distraction as the cultists turned their weapons more or less on the spider demons.

Unfortunately the sight of the spider demons was too much for Sarge, who was still a greenhorn when it came to Mythos creatures. As soon as he laid eyes on the hideous giant spiders and their throbbing pedepalps, the shock caused him to pass out at the wheel of the car! Prelutsky struggled with the wheel while Icecave attempted to revive the insensate Sarge, but the car was traveling at over 80 miles per hour at this point and rapidly nearing the end of the bridge, and neither man was able to avert it’s course fast enough – the car flew by an astonished Morgan Lafayette and crashed head-on into the concrete wall on the other side!

The group could see the room with the detonator, but between them and their prize stood a dozen hostile cultists with automatic weapons and the sorceress Lafayette herself! Prelutsky and Icecave wanted to take cover and try for one last ditch shoot out with the cultists and Lafayette, but Sarge had more heroic plans. With his veins still full of CMP, he charged towards the cultists and their leader singlehandedly!

He could not feel the bullets tearing at his flesh but he knew his assault was surely a death sentence. Still, Sarge pressed on, crashing into the cultists like a linebacker, throwing off a hostile spell flung by the sorceress and pulling a grenade from his belt. The detonator stood on a table in the adjacent room, unattended and in clear view. Sarge pulled the pin, took aim, and threw the grenade in a perfect arc, skittering to a stop right next to the detonator, exploding and shattering it into a million little pieces.

With a howl, Lafayette saw that her plan had been foiled, and wove a killing spell. Prelutsky and Icecave watched in horror as she tore Sarge’s soul from his body in a burst of black energy, drawing it into an amulet around her neck, leaving only a smoldering corpse where a man once stood.

Prelutsky and Icecave had taken cover in a tiny concrete room, where they found several dam workers taken hostage by the cult. They decided to make one last desperate stand, and armed the terrified hostages to try to fight off the cultists for as long as they could. But when it seemed as if all hope was lost, the tide turned – the PCs heard he sound of helicopter blades slicing through the air in the distance. Lafayette, sensing the game was up, transformed into a raven and flew away just as a squad of national guard attack helicopters arrived, eviscerating cultist and spider demon alike with their heavy machine guns. Prelutsky and Icecave and the hostages emerged from their makeshift bunker to find the sun rising. Although many had been lost, they had carried the day. They were going home.

After the ambush attempt of Gemini, Part I, the PCs took a brief detour from their pursuit of the Taleisin Society to interrogate the captured cultist, Ophelia. Malcolm Reading took the lead on the interrogation, as terrifying people into talking is more his forte than anyone else’s. Despite some initial difficulty, he was able to determine that the cult was traveling to Electric City, WA, a city built in the shadow of the Grand Coulee Dam, the largest hydroelectric dam in the country. The cultists brought with them four black duffel bags, and no one but the highest ranking members were allowed to see what was inside the bags. Ophelia said she never saw inside the bags and didn’t know what their contents were.

She told Reading that the black door was used in a ritual Morgan had performed the night before leaving for Electric City. She said that she needed to “consult with someone important.” Ophelia added that she had been sneaking in to Morgan’s room when she wasn’t around to read through Les Prophéties de la Haute Magie, a rare book containing the secrets of the black door ritual. Ophelia said she had learned enough to cast the spell again if the PCs wanted her to, but that she would only do it in exchange for immunity from prosecution for any criminal acts associated with the cult. After consulting with the rest of the group, who decided casting the spell again would be a bad idea, Reading laughed in her face and refused, leaving her to rot in prison.

The PCs then contacted Thessaly, hoping that her arcane expertise could help them to stop the cult. Reading asked her to come out to the motel room to examine the black door and tell them what its occult significance was, but remembering how the PCs had refused to allow her to come along with them on their last mission, ( Devil’s Tower, Part II), she refused. She told reading to tell Boone: “Quid pro quo, Mr. Boone,” and then hung up.

The PCs then picked up the trail of the cult, traveling to Electric City in the hopes of finally catching up with them. They fanned out, trying to gather information from the locals, and as luck would have it, Lance Boone ran into a local cop who said he had seen a group of five SUVs pulling into a local motel. Hightailing it to the motel rooms, Malcolm Reading, Eli Meadows, and Lance Boone picked the locks on their motel rooms one by one. Most of the motel rooms were largely empty, but in the final room the PCs found a metal rod with wires sticking out of it behind one of the desks, and Ned Icecave identified it as a C-4 blasting cap! Realizing that the cult was trying to blow up the Grand Coulee Dam, the PCs prepared to race to the dam.

But Morgan had set another trap for our heroes – a Formless Spawn, lying in wait in the toilet tank, slithered out and attempted to sneak up behind the PCs, but was foiled by Reading! A battle ensued, with Sarge, Reading, and Boone firing ineffectually at the formless spawn with their sidearms. As they realized that bullets had no impact upon this monster, they began to flee, but not before the creature impaled Boone upon its tentacle, leaving him unconscious and in critical condition!

Reading was also wounded, but managed to make it to their car, where the PCs had left the Flensing Rod of Abdul-Azim. Reading gave it to Sarge, who used the rod to disintegrate the Formless Spawn right before it devoured them both!

The PCs then hurried to the Grand Coulee Dam, but with most of their cell grievously injured and with military and law enforcement too far away to get there in time, they wondered how they were going to stop the well-armed cultists. Using blueprints extracted from a government database, the group was able to determine that there was a hidden interior staircase that could get them to the top of the bridge. They formed a plan to sneak onto the staircase and climb to the top of the dam, where Alexander DeLong would cast a spell to summon and bind an unknown mythos creature to his side! Praying that this would be enough to stop the cult, the PCs adjourned for the night, leaving the final conclusion of this adventure for another date.

Nunez called the PCs into the briefing room and explained that Delta Green keeps tabs on a number of occult and quasi-religious organizations, watching for signs of paranormal activity. In the past week, there have been signs that something strange is afoot in one such organization, the Taleisin society. The Taleisin Society began as a loose network of neo-pagans whose worship practices greatly resembled the infamous Esoteric Order of Dagon of Arkham, Massachusetts. Their members, normally scattered around the country, all recently boarded flights for New Haven Connecticut, and then dropped off the radar. Until 8 hours ago, when police camera footage surfaced revealing the passengers of an SUV, rented by a known society member, gunning down two police officers during a routine traffic stop before peeling out. Nunez explained that he wanted the PCs to track down the cult and figure out what was going on.

Hot in pursuit, the PCs headed out to western Montana, where the SUV had been sighted and where the two police officers had been killed. They discovered that the SUV had been abandoned several miles down the road, presumably because the cult stole another car. Malcolm Reading, using his expert investigation skills, found a trail of beaten down grass and bent twigs leading away from the SUV and back towards the main highway. Close to the highway, he found a man’s wallet that had been tossed into the weeds. It was empty of money and credit cards but had a driver’s license in it that had belonged to a local resident. There was also a car registered in his name. The PCs put out an APB on the vehicle, and local police reported that it was spotted parked at a Motel 6 several miles away.

Racing to the scene, the PCs spoke to the front desk attendant, who confirmed that a known cult member had showed up yesterday and booked a block of four rooms throughout the week. The PCs gathered a swarm of police officers and breached the doors to all four rooms simultaneously. Three were empty, but one room was filled five armed men, a woman dressed in flowing robes, and with a grenade taped to the wall, rigged to pull the pin when the door was opened!

Gathered outside the fourth door were Reading and four police officers. three of the cops were immediately killed in the blast, but Reading emerged from the smoke with only minor wounds. Standing his ground courageously, he opened fire on the armed group while the officers from the three empty rooms dashed over to the smoking, ruined fourth doorway. As the officers began to arrive and open fire, they started to take the armed thugs out, one by one. But the thugs weren’t going down without a fight, and during the exchange, one of the thugs scored a critical hit on Reading with his shotgun, blowing a huge hole out of his lower abdomen! Injured, Reading hobbled away from the door frame and slumped against the wall, where Jared Silverstein stanched the bleeding and sewed his wounds up.

Meanwhile, the police officers made short work of the remaining thugs, and one of them even managed to lob a flash bang into the room, blinding and deafening the female cultist. Ned Icecave dashed forward and zip-tied her hands, capturing her for interrogation later. After the dust had cleared, the cultist told the PCs that her name was Ophelia, and leadership of the cult had been taken over by a mysterious newcomer named Morgan. She said Morgan had told her and the armed men to stay behind in the hotel room “in case my sister of any of her newfound friends shows up.”

With that puzzling message, the group adjourned for the night. Who is this Morgan? And what is her diabolical plan? Find out on the next exciting episode of Fire in the Sky!

When we left off, the PCs had tracked the location of their captured comrades to the Devil’s Tower oil platform, located deep within the Gulf of Mexico. After some deliberation, they decided to charter a boat to get them close to the platform and then make the approach by inflatable speedboat. Once there, they would plant explosives on the spar keeping the platform buoyant, and then sneak aboard by scaling the side ladder. Once aboard they would use the explosives as leverage to force MJ-12 to let them safely retrieve Malcolm Reading and Joel Gregory.

The PCs managed to plant the explosives and board the platform without a hitch, but ran into trouble when they were spotted by the guards and a firefight ensued! While Lance Boone, Jared Silverstein, and Ned Icecave held off the armed FBI agents on the lower levels of the platform, Frederick Goodwin stole one of their uniforms and made his way to the upper deck, where he managed to catch up with Agent Stephen Cleary as he and his men were preparing to board the helicopters on the two rooftop helipads and evacuate the platform! To make matters worse, a sudden storm picked up out of nowhere, rocking the platform with torrential downpours and gale-force winds!

Thinking fast, Goodwin managed to tackle Cleary and point a gun at his head, taking him hostage! With their commander now turned into a human shield, the FBI agents held their fire as Goodwin slowly retreated towards the lower decks with Reading and Gregory in tow. The assembled FBI agents and another special MJ-12 agent in high-tech body armor.

Cleary smiled as he explained that since Goodwin left MJ-12, they had found another psychic to replace him. And then without warning, the psychic supersoldier telekinetically grabbed Goodwin and slammed him into the wall! Cleary – not one to go quietly at any time – pulled a concealed pistol and tried to shoot Goodwin in the face! A struggle ensued, but Reading managed against all odds to wrest the gun away from Cleary and force him into a grapple.

Pinning him handily, Reading resumed using him as a human shield and forced Cleary to tell the FBI agents and their psychic supersoldier, who had enough guns to supply a small battalion trained on him, to stand down while he inched ever closer to the lower decks and freedom. Reading warned Cleary that if he tried anything else, he was a dead man. His reprieve was short-lived, however – as soon as he came into view of the control tower, two snipers positioned within opened fire! They missed, but it was enough to cause chaos to ensue, with the FBI agents opening up with a storm of bullets and buckshot.

Enraged, Reading threw Cleary over the side of the platform, where he plummeted 80 feet into the storm-tossed sea below. The supersoldier swan-dived into the sea after him, trying to save him from the raging waters beneath the platform. Meanwhile Goodwin, Reading and Gregory made their way below decks, where Icecave, Boone and Silverstein were waiting for them.

Flamethrower ready, Icecave held back the FBI agents as they tried to force their way down the stairs, lambasting them with jellied gasoline and leaving a pile of charred bodies at the bottom of the stairs! Meanwhile the rest of the group limped to the inflatable speedboat. With the rest of the group free of danger, Icecave made his way towards the boat, but as he was almost aboard, an FBI sniper who had made his way down the stairs took aim and fired – a critical hit right to the chest! His pericardium punctured and bleeding badly, Icecave collapsed, having only a few rounds to live! Silverstein and Boone raced up the ladder from the lifeboat to the stricken Icecave. Boone handily shot the FBI sniper while Silverstein went to work! One round passed and then another as Silverstein raced against time to stanch the bleeding and save Icecave from certain demise. But then, with one round left before certain death, salvation arrived in the form of a nat 20 on his heal check!

With Icecave stabilized and their captured comrades rescued, the PCs loaded into the inflatable speedboat and made their way for shore, saved to fight another day.

In the time leading up to the mission, Ned Icecave pursued his lead on Dr. Nadja Fulani, who was reputed to know the location of the Pnakotic Manuscripts, a document which was said to hold the secret to breaking the death-curse on Brian Gall. After questioning staff and teaching assistants at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute, he was able to pin down her location to a remote village in Nigeria. Reaching it, however, would be another matter entirely.

Our adventure opened with Cell K down two members – both the formidable Malcolm Reading and the greenhorn Joel Gregory having fallen into the clutches of Majestic-12. Somewhat more fortunately, Lance Boone and Cal narrowly slipped through MJ-12’s fingers, and managed to meet get to the Evac point in the Texas desert with the broken body of Brian Gall in tow. Secreted safely in the back of a semi truck, they made their way to the new Delta Green headquarters set up by Nunez in Bethesda, Maryland.

When they arrived, Nunez was waiting along with Jared Silverstein, Ned Icecave, and a new addition to the team, Frederick Goodwin. Nunez apologized for the disastrous mission that had led the PCs into the clutches of MJ-12. He sighed and said that the time had come for the PCs to be let in on a great secret. He explained that after the 1947 Roswell New Mexico UFO crash, the United States government had come into possession of a real flying saucer. Faced with the question of what to do about it, they formed a special task force, code-named Majestic 12, to manage research into the grays and their technology. Conversely, the pre-existing group Delta Green was tasked with denying foreign governments the use of alien technology. The two organizations were at odds from the start. Majestic-12 was eager to cosy up with the grays from the start, while Delta Green remained suspicious of the strange beings from another world. An unfortunate misstep spelled disaster for Delta Green in 1974 – an unauthorized excursion into Cambodia caused an embarrassing backlash, prompting the Feds to officially disband Delta Green, leaving Majestic-12 as the sole legitimate American paranormal organization.

Realizing that Majestic-12 could not be trusted with the safety and security of the American people, a hundred of top former members of Delta Green met privately just weeks later to confer about what must be done. At the close of their meeting, a clear conclusion had been reached – to continue Delta Green as a secret conspiracy within the Federal government. Legitimate or not, Delta Green’s work was too important to abandon. Nunez asked the group if they would continue on their mission, even knowing that Delta Green is an unlawful conspiracy, and was met with a resounding and unhesitant “yes,” from everyone present.

They swiftly set to work plotting how to locate and rescue their captured comrades. Nunez told the group that Delta Green’s agents had spotted a helicopter with a military designation and no registered flight plan heading east from the area around Abbot, TX. The group tracked it to a military hospital in Maryland, where they deduced that Reading and Gregory were likely being held. Using a janitor’s disguise, Goodwin was able to infiltrate the hospital and break into the chief administrator’s computer, which revealed that two anonymous prisoners were evacuated from the hospital by helicopter that morning, bound for an air force base in Louisiana.

Realizing they were but one step behind their quarry, the PCs hopped a flight to the air force base, where Goodwin once again put together an ingenious disguise – German test pilots this time. Angrily storming up to the gate guard, Goodwin demanded to know why they had not been granted their training craft yet. The astonished guard showed the group to a temporary barracks and went to get his superior, who was equally cowed by the belligerent Goodwin. While they were gone, he was able to make his way into air traffic control, and was able to distract the ATC workers long enough to steal the flight plan of the helicopter in question, revealing that it was bound for an offshore oil platform known as Devil’s Tower.

Wondering what dire deeds could be afoot on the platform, the group adjourned for the night, vowing to plot a rescue mission the very next session.